Thanks to Bill McEwen for his continuing columns in opposition to the folly of Cemex’s proposal to spend a hundred years strip mining Jesse Morrow Mountain. We can only hope his farsightedness is shared by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
Fresno will deserve its status as the butt of jokes if it approves a project that will site a 24-hour mining operation on top of a thousand foot, sacred mountain that is the signature land form on a scenic highway to two crown jewel national parks. Regarding an alleged Choinumni land deal, Cemex went to a small faction of Choinumni people, who are not fluent in the language and do not know the history and oral traditions of the tribe. They offered them a deal, unbeknownst to the rest of the Choinumni people, which the faction took.
Fortunately for the real Choinumni, today such action is not merely morally reprehensible, but illegal as well. Cemex and its consultant failed to contact those Choinumni listed as local contacts by the California Native Heritage Commission. Opponents of Cemex are guardedly optimistic that the Planning Commission and Board will see through this and the other sordid aspects of Cemex’s outrageous proposal.
Michael Becker
Fresno
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